Whitehead, Dewey, Experimentalism

Whitehead agrees with Dewey that Experience is fundamentally Aesthetic, i. e. the seeking, by an organism, of Harmony, and that it is episodic, i. e. consisting of discrete experiences, with their discrete terminal moments of satisfaction. However, as Ratner argues, in his introduction to a Dewey collection, Whitehead does not share Dewey's appreciation for experimental experiences, especially in the sphere of Scientific inquiry. For example, he quotes Whitehead as dismissing experiment as "cooking the facts". Now, as Whitehead's theory of Propositions, and his analysis of Hume's 'Missing Shade of Blue' problem, show, he allows that Truth is provisional, that Error is a constructive opportunity, and that Imagination can be the locus of discovery. On the other hand, what is lacking in his theory of Experience is an account of the creating of facts, in general, of which "cooking" them for Scientific purposes is a special case. For, as has been previously discussed, the arc of an experience, for Whitehead, begins with the de-stabilizing reception of a novel influx of energy, and terminates in a theoretical or practical decision regarding it. Hence, any subsequent efficient causality, originating in an emergent Superject from that experience, is outside the scope of that arc, even though, as has been suggested, Whitehead is not lacking in the systematic resources for accommodating such an active experiential process. What he is lacking in is Dewey's appreciation for the creative Artistic dimension of Aesthetic Experience.